


The Puddle Jumper Variations

by Goddess47



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-19
Packaged: 2018-02-05 04:48:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,934
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1805860
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Goddess47/pseuds/Goddess47
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"It's a variation of Zelenka's wormhole drive, sized so it can be put into a Jumper," Rodney replied smugly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Make sure you see Mella's wonderful art that inspired my story -- found here: <http://archiveofourown.org/collections/SGAreversebigbang2014/works/1795567>... go and tell her how pretty it is.
> 
> Many thanks to patient mods for being patient... 
> 
> This is essentially a "five times" fic... warnings for individual chapters will be posted with the chapter.

"So, what does it do?" John asked, trying to keep the doubt out of his voice. This was Rodney after all. Then again, it was Rodney.

John peered into the schematic displayed on the wall in front of them. It almost looked like an engine, but at the same time, it didn't. Rodney had been all but bouncing on his toes all day, anxious to show whatever this was off to John.

"It's a variation of Zelenka's wormhole drive, sized so it can be put into a Jumper," Rodney replied smugly.

They were in Rodney's 'personal' lab... the one with Rodney's special coffee pot that made the best coffee in the city. Rodney used it as a 'reward' when one of his scientists did something special. It was at least as popular as Zelenka's still.

"Really?" John was impressed. "How close are you to really building it?"

"This is the conceptual drawing but I've started working on the engineering specs," Rodney admitted, settling into place. "But -- well, depending on what happens around here -- maybe a couple of months. And there are some tweaks I still need to make in the design."

"What kind of tweaks?" John did frown at that.

Rodney shrugged. "Some things I learned from that time on the other Daedalus..."

John sighed, rubbing his forehead to ward off the headache. "Rodney!" They had been lucky to escape that particular trap and John didn't want to take any risk of repeating that.

"No, no, no..." Rodney protested, arms waving. "That's why it's taking so long," he tried to assure John. "I'm doing this carefully."

"You sure?" John demanded.

"Yes," Rodney promised seriously. Then grinned. "But it's cool? Right?"

John had to smile back. "Yes, it is!"

It was actually three more months before the first prototype was built. There had been a 'misunderstanding' with some Wraith worshippers, a detour into getting the hydroponics section up and running -- fresh food was always a higher priority than theoretical hyperdrive engines -- and an Athosian hunting festival that Teyla insisted they all attend, before Rodney finally finished the engine.

If John didn't know what kind of effort had gone into building the prototype, the look of dismay on Rodney's face when it blew up -- quite spectacularly but rather completely -- would have been comical. It was the same look Rodney got when he got to the mess after the last serving of tormack had been given out.

"No, no, no!" Rodney had muttered, as he frantically pounded on the computer keyboard as the indicators started to go bezerk. But there was no stopping the explosion.

Good thing they had lifted it into the atmosphere with a drone rather than a Jumper. They would have lost yet another Jumper in the effort. The drone would be much less expensive to replace. Although the explosion did make quite the extravagant fireworks display.

"I told you the frame needed to be heavier!" Zelenka pointed out. Loudly and waving his hands in frustration.

"But the jumper needs to be able to fly!" Rodney shot back. "If the frame is heavier, it's going to affect the ability of the jumper to fly in normal space!" Obviously an ongoing argument they had had in the labs while building the device.

"Okay," John broke in before the argument could go any further into obviously well-worn territory. "How long before you can build the next version?"

Rodney stopped for a moment to think and Zelenka frowned. John thought it was rather eerie that they looked at each other, Rodney shrugged, Zelenka nodded. Rodney said, "Two months." He grinned. "We have to rebuild the frame from scratch."

John could hear Zelenka swearing under his breath but everyone ignored it.

The next prototype really was built in the predicted two months.

The destruction of the second prototype wasn't -- quite -- as spectacular but it was equally thorough. There was less shouting, evidently even Zelenka thought this version had a better chance.

It was close to a year before they got a prototype that didn't explode. It was larger than the earlier versions, it turned out it didn't need a heavier frame as much as it needed a _larger_ frame.

"We'll have to sacrifice space in the rear compartment to install it," Rodney admitted as they watched the engine work on his monitor. They had used a drone to take it into the upper atmosphere and it had opened a hyperspace window at what Rodney had promised was a safe distance from the planet.

"If we can get a jumper to fly into hyperspace, that'll give us a tactical advantage that's worth losing the space for," John replied calmly. "Get it working properly and then you can focus on the size as the next phase of the project."

"I guess," Rodney was frustrated. John knew Rodney's default setting was to want to get it right the first time... that already wasn't happening with this project.

More drone tests, with cameras and telemetry, were performed before John would even think of letting Rodney modify a Jumper. They did take a Jumper into space to be away from the planet with the last tests. They watched as the engine opened a hyperspace window, the drone flying into it. A few minutes later, Rodney captured the signal as the drone re-entered real space about two light years away.

"Works perfectly!" Rodney crowed.

"What about that drone we lost... what, about three months ago?" John asked with a small frown.

Rodney shrugged. "That was an anomaly," he replied easily. "All of the other tests have been perfect."

"It's just odd that the one drone went into the window and didn't seem to come out anywhere," John persisted. Anomalies made the back of his neck itch.

Rodney turned and looked at John. "I can't make a 100 percent guarantee that anything is 100 percent perfect," Rodney said seriously. "I'm doing the best I can."

John held up a hand in surrender. "I know that," he replied. "I also have to ask."

Rodney grinned. "Fair enough!"

John could only grin back helplessly.


	2. Variation the First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Rodney, I'm bored," John whined. "Give me _something_ to do."

[blink]

"Oh, fuck."

"Ya think?" John replied. Although he knew it was mostly a rhetorical statement. It was as much a reflex as Rodney's epithet.

They were on a test run with the new Jumper-sized worm hole drive and it had just... died. They had been in hyperspace and then, without warning from any of the myriad of devices Rodney had hooked up to both the Jumper and the new drive, they were in real space. This was their first manned test of the new work hole drive in the Jumper. Since Rodney had insisted on being there, John naturally insisted on being the pilot.

Not that anyone was thrilled about that decision. Lorne and Zelenka had, individually and in tandem, lobbied to be the ones to take the Jumper out. Even Ronon and Teyla had given them a hard time about not being included.

John had had to endure a long, detailed discussion with Richard Woolsey about contingency plans "just in case" something happened.

John and Evan Lorne really did have contingency plans in place for the military contingent on Atlantis. As much as he hated paperwork, he had seen too much shit happen to not be aware that every time he walked through the gate, he might not come back. So his contingency plans had contingency plans. Convincing Woolsey hadn't been that hard, John had simply had to walk through all of the plans before Woolsey had run out of "what if..." questions.

"I'm impressed," Woolsey finally admitted.

John shrugged. "Most of it is standard military procedure," he admitted. "It's a little different being in Pegasus rather than on Earth, but in the end, succession planning is a fine art in the military."

"Now if I could get Dr. McKay to do the same thing..." Woolsey sighed.

John laughed. "Actually, Rodney has plans, he just doesn't have them to this level of detail. But they're on one of the servers and Zelenka and Carson have access to them. And Zelenka has some of it in hard copy stashed away, if we lose the servers."

Woolsey perked up at that nugget. "Really? Why then is he all..." Woolsey waved a hand in a manner that could mean almost anything, "I guess, secretive about it?"

"Rodney will never admit he's replaceable," John replied. "Zelenka actually came up with most of the first drafts, but Rodney made them workable."

"Why Dr. Beckett?" Woolsey asked.

"If something catastrophic happens," John explained, "Radek's more than likely to be involved and probably wouldn't be available. They figured Carson would be essentially the 'last man standing' and be able to access the plans."

"And if something happens to Dr. Beckett?" Woolsey persisted.

John shrugged. "They have plans for that," he replied. "Get Zelenka to give you an unofficial briefing. But you'll be surprised."

In the end, Rodney got his way, so John got his way and here they now were, on a dead Jumper drifting in space.

The lights had dimmed, going to the emergency backup batteries, thank goodness that much worked so they'd have lights and air for a pretty long time. Not that John really wanted to learn first hand how long the emergency batteries would last. 

John looked at the dead indicators in front of him, thinking _On_ as hard as he could. He doesn't even get a twinge of response.

"It's dead," John announced, unnecessarily.

"It's not supposed to be totally dead!" Rodney protested, climbing out of his seat to go to the engine. "We should still have standard Jumper power."

"Then maybe that's the problem," John offered. "Your engine broke the Jumper."

"My engine didn't break the Jumper," Rodney protested. Too quickly for John's liking.

"Until we know more, that's what I'm going with," John replied tartly.

Rodney _hrmph'd_ at him but started taking the covering off the engine so he could get to it.

Fortunately, Rodney had not only brought multiple laptops but extra power supplies for each laptop. Rodney set up a series of diagnostics and leaned back a bit, studying one screen.

"Anything I can do?" John asked.

"Coffee?" Rodney asked, absently.

"Umm... no," John replied.

Rodney looked up at that. "Oh, right, sorry!" he replied. "MRE?"

"That we have," John said, getting out of his seat and digging into the emergency stash every Jumper had. "Meatloaf?" John held up a package.

"Sure," Rodney replied.

John set the meal to heating and, when it was ready, handed it to Rodney. Rodney ate one handed, the other hand poking at multiple keyboards. John found watching Rodney work on multiple computers like this fascinating.

"Huh," Rodney finally muttered.

"Is that a good _huh_ or a bad _huh_ ," John asked patiently.

"It's not supposed to do that," Rodney pointed at the screen. That John couldn't see from where he was sitting.

"Do what?" John said firmly. "Tell me what's going on!"

Rodney sighed and put the laptop that was actually sitting on his lap down next to where he was sitting on the floor.

"The power conduit for the engine is running parallel to the power conduit for the Jumper," Rodney explained. "It should have been shielded well enough but evidently, the engine was drawing power from the Jumper and when the batteries were exhausted, the engine cut out."

"Your engine broke the Jumper," John repeated his earlier statement with a small grin.

"Oh, all right, _the_ engine broke the Jumper," Rodney shot back.

"Oh, it's yours when it works right, but it's not when it's misbehaving?" John had to laugh.

Rodney rolled his eyes.

"Now what?" John asked.

"Well, I have an emergency battery I can hook up to the Jumper, so that we can have primary power back and run the Jumper controls," Rodney replied. "I'll have to re-route some of the non-critical systems before we power anything up, so we don't run that down before we even get started. It should be okay without the worm hole engine working, but need to play it safe."

"What will we be able to do with the emergency battery?" John asked.

"The radio, for one thing," Rodney said promptly, then considered. "Navigation. Limited sub-light engines. I'll have to think about what else we can afford to bring up."

"What can I do?" John asked.

Rodney shrugged. "Not much, honestly," he replied. "I don't want you initializing anything until I'm ready. So I need your uber-gene fingers off the controls."

"Okay," John reluctantly agreed. He sat back to watch as Rodney worked.

That lasted for about twenty minutes.

"Rodney, I'm bored," John whined. "Give me _something_ to do." Not that he didn't mind watching Rodney work, it's just that they couldn't afford the distraction that would cause right now.

Rodney looked around for a moment and reached out for one of his laptops. He disconnected it from whatever it was connected to in the Jumper and handed it to John.

"Find a movie to watch," Rodney directed. "There's a _movie_ directory with some movies in it. That should keep you faintly entertained for a bit."

John took the laptop. "You don't need this for something else?" John asked. "I mean, I'll live..."

"No, I can do most of that from another unit," he admitted. "It was just handy."

"Let me know if you need it back!" John replied as he dug into the system.

John scrolled through the list in silence for a few minutes before he ask, in a strangled voice, "What the fuck were you thinking?"

Rodney looked up. "What? It's not porn or anything, is it?"

John sighed. "You have an incredibly... interesting taste in movies," he said.

Rodney thought for a moment and then said, "Oh. Um... sorry?"

John read off the list of movies on the laptop. " _Deep Impact_ , _The Planet of the Apes_ \-- and two different versions of that, _2012_ , _The Day After Tomorrow_ , _I Am Legend_ , yeah, that's just too close to home... At least _Escape from New York_ was a fun movie," he said. "But, really, end of the world disaster movies?"

"I just picked files from the server at random and pulled them to the laptop," Rodney defended the selection. "It's not like I picked them on purpose."

"Uh-huh, right," John teased. "Well, at least it's not _The Notebook_."

Rodney grinned. "I hid that on the server," he admitted. "There are enough copies around as it is, on people's personal drives. But that's too soppy for my taste."

"You got that right!" John agreed. He clicked around. " _Escape from New York_ it is."

John kept the sound low, so that he wouldn't disturb Rodney. He fell asleep at one point, jerking awake when he slid sideways in his seat.

"Oh, good, you're awake," Rodney said. "Can you dig out another MRE?"

"Sure," John answered. "You could have woken me, you know." He stretched as he got out of the seat.

"Wasn't important," Rodney demurred. "But since you're awake, I'm ready for a break."

"How's it going?" John asked, his head in the supply bin.

"Slow," Rodney admitted. "I need to make sure I don't turn off things like air handling, and gravity, and some of this is cobbled together from being damaged at some point." All of the Jumpers were damaged in some way, with all the abuse they had taken over time. As a result, John couldn't be surprised by that.

"Air is good," John agreed. He handed Rodney more meatloaf and kept the spaghetti for himself. "Take a break and talk to me."

"I think I'm close, but want to be careful," Rodney replied. "I've disconnected weapons and the shield, so better hope nothing nasty comes this way."

"Now you've jinxed it!" John grinned.

Rodney went on to describe further what he was doing and John let the sound of Rodney's voice roll over him.

When they were done eating, Rodney went back to work and John started up _2012_ , mostly for the improbability of it.

"Okay, I think I have the radio back," Rodney interrupted.

"Good," John was relieved. "If I have to watch any more of this, I... I don't know what I'll do. But I'm glad to stop."

"Okay, just the radio," Rodney directed, pointing at the control panel. "And carefully."

John slid into the pilot seat and poked carefully at the button for the radio, careful to not touch anything else.

"Atlantis? This is Jumper One," John said into the mic.

"Colonel Sheppard?" Chuck's voice came back. "Glad to hear from you. What happened?"

"Long story, which we will tell when we get back," John replied. "Can you get a location on us?"

John heard Radek calling out something in the background.

"Yes, Dr Z says he's found you, now," Chuck replied. "You're... about three light years out and it looks like... yes, there's a Gate that shouldn't be too far from you."

"We're essentially out of power, can you send someone out for us?" John decided.

"Already prepped a Jumper, we've just been waiting to hear from you," Chuck confirmed. "If you can't move at all, it'll be... another couple of hours before it will get to you."

"Another couple of hours, we can manage," John affirmed.

Rodney sat back with a sigh. "Okay, we're stable for now, and I'd prefer we not do too much more here so I can take it apart in the lab to see what went wrong."

"Okay by me," John agreed. " _Planet of the Apes_?" he asked.

"The one with Roddy McDowell?" Rodney replied.

"Sure," John said. "Come over here and sit."


End file.
